Larry Ponce wore his football shirt backward from the minute he got up in the morning to the end of the school day on Tuesday.

The Ramona-Alessandro Elementary School student was doing much more than making a fashion statement.

He and many of his fellow students dressed in a way that demonstrated they are turning their backs on drugs.

“People who take drugs might end up going the wrong way in life, so I want to be drug-free and go the right way,” Ponce said.

It was one of several similar demonstrations being held in San Bernardino-area school districts Monday through Friday, in recognition of Red Ribbon Week.

The National Family Partnership annually sponsors the week to encourage a unified and visible commitment to stopping illegal drug use in the United States.

It began in 1985 to honor U.S. Drug Enforcement Special Agent Enrique Camarena who was kidnapped and murdered by Mexican drug traffickers.

Students at Ramona-Allesandro were also asked to wear red one day of the week, design a poster encouraging people to pick healthy, drug-free activities and wear bracelets saying “believe, achieve, succeed, drug-free.”

On Thursday, students will be encouraged to sign a pledge to remain drug-free.

“It’s all about making healthy, life-affirming choices. If we take care of ourselves physically we will shine mentally,” said counselor Sue Reynolds. “And this is the right age for them to hear it before outside influences come in.”

Other San Bernardino City Unified schools planned Red Ribbon dances, held writing and T-shirt art contests and invited local police department canine units and San Bernardino County’s Tobacco Use Reduction Now program, to explain to students the dangers of tobacco and illegal drug use.

Students in Rialto Unified schools marked the week by participating in poster, essay and cartoon contests.

In Redlands Unified, officials passed out bracelets in keeping with the week’s theme of “I am Drug-Free.”

Some schools also encouraged students to wear red on a particular day and students pledged in assemblies to live substance- abuse-free lives.

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